Williams Township may suspend open space program

They'll start evaluating a land preservation effort that has amassed $1.2 million.

August 15, 2013|By Charles Malinchak, Special to The Morning Call

The first of several discussions on whether or not Williams Township should suspend its open space program began Wednesday with no robust comments of "Let's get rid of it."

Supervisors Chairman George Washburn described the first round of talks as starting a conversation to evaluate the program and look at a way to possibly temporarily suspend it.

When 70 percent of township voters approved a 0.25 percent earned income tax to fund land preservation in 2004, Washburn said, "I voted against it, but I would probably vote for it today."

Supervisor Vincent Foglia has been critical of the program and said he believes it has strayed from its original intention of preserving land that could be easily developed.

"I'm not prepared to cut off the program, but there's been some big inconsistencies with the goals approved by the board. ... There's been a discrepancy in what we've been doing,'' he said.

Supervisor Sally Hixson said she supports the program and questioned the reasoning behind only preserving developable land.

"There is no piece of land that is not developable,'' she said.

"I am 100 percent behind our land preservation efforts," she said after remarking about how many people have told her they want to maintain the township's rural landscape and how lucky Williams is to have farmers who want to continue farming.

The tax that funds the program brings in about $411,000 per year and is kept in an account solely for buying preservation easements. That account today has about $1.2 million.

Land Preservation Board Chairman Bob Schmidt said the program has preserved 1,380 acres at a cost to taxpayers of $2.3 million and an additional $5.4 million used to buy easements in state and county money.

"In principle, I'm behind this, but one thing I ask is we have $1.2 million in the bank and $411,000 coming in. We have enough now,'' resident Kathy Lilly said.

"There has to be some kind of parameters. ... We want to preserve streams, woods and the rural character, but what is it we are protecting from?'' she said.

Walanne Steele said it would be a mistake to stop collecting the money because people don't instantly decide to preserve their property.

"We can't know when people will avail themselves to preservation,'' she said.

Land Preservation Board member Linda Heindel said: "I'm looking around here and everyone is breathing. Our air is purified by the woods."

She said limiting preservation to easily developed land is shortsighted, because all types of land — including forests, steep slopes and wetlands — play a vital role in preventing floods, keeping water clean and maintaining the visual characteristics of the landscape.

Preserving all types of land is also a lasting gift to grandchildren, great-grandchildren and so on, she said, and added, "Once the forests are gone, they're gone.''